Pasqualini, MartaSacker, AmandaMcMunn, Anne2024-04-222024-04-222021Pasqualini M, Sacker A, McMunn A. Birth order and first sexual experience: do siblings influence sexual debut in adolescents? Arch Sex Behav. 2021 Aug;50(6):2395-409. DOI: 10.1007/s10508-021-01979-w1573-2800http://hdl.handle.net/10230/59864Birth order may foster specific roles for individuals within the family and set in train a dynamic that influences the development of specific behaviors. In this paper, we explored the relationship between birth order, sex, timing of sexual initiation, and its consequences for risky sexual behavior and sexual health. We conducted a path analysis to simultaneously estimate direct and indirect effects using data from the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL-3). Whereas women born as only-children were more likely to sexually debut at later ages, middle-child boys were significantly more prone to initiate sexual intercourse earlier compared with first-borns. As expected, early sexual initiation was associated with riskier behaviors and sexual health outcomes. These associations were partially moderated by siblings role as confidants about sexuality. Our findings have implications for preventive programs aimed at promoting healthy sexual debuts and behaviors over the life span.application/pdfengThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-01979-wAdolescent sexual behaviorsBirth orderChild siblingsFamily relationsStructural equation modelinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess